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By Virginia Manuel, USDA Maine Rural Development State Director USDA Rural Development provided a Rural Business Enterprise Grant to assist the Maine Alternative Agriculture Association (MA 3) to renovate the former Grange Hall in Starks into a modern facility for processing and distributing local...

By Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary I recently spoke at the BIG TEN conference in Minneapolis. The BIG TEN is a USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) sponsored event focused on improving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) performance at the state and local level. Participants are from...

The Department of Agriculture is a big institution, with a $149 billion budget and 114,000 employees. When Secretary Vilsack asked me to spearhead the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative, my first impulse wasn’t to create new programs and authorities, but rather to figure out how better to...

By Vicki Walker, USDA Rural Development Oregon State Director Victor Vasquez, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development, delivered a strong, upbeat message to grant recipients at the Community Services Consortium Youth House Gardens in Corvallis, Oregon on July 12. The Deputy Under Secretary...

By Stacy Porto, Special Assistant Federal employees from across the country are coming together to do what the USDA does every day – increase food security and reduce hunger by providing low-income people access to food. Inspired by President Obama’s United We Serve Act, the Feds, Farmers, and...

By Lisa Wallenda Picard, Food Safety and Inspection Service Chief of Staff “Stop! She has to eat some fruit! Don’t give her MORE chips! MOM – Cassie’s going to kill her daughter with all this junk food!” Ceci Picard, aged 11, while playing one of the Apps for Healthy Kids entries. I admit the quote...

As a heat wave consumes much of the country, especially here in Washington, DC, winter seems a long way off—unless you’re a farmer. For the 2.2 million farms that grow our nation’s food, fiber, and fuel, it’s likely a good time to be thinking ahead to the upcoming harvest and preparing for the...

By Anita Regmi, USDA Research, Education, and Economics This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA's rich science and research portfolio. Living and traveling through rural South Asia and Sub-Saharan...

By Lisa Pino, Deputy Administrator for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program The Latino community faces dual challenges when it comes to nutrition since hunger and obesity can often co-exist. Hispanics in the U.S. have higher rates of both food insecurity and obesity. The USDA Food and...

By Richard A. Machek, Florida State Director, USDA Rural Development I recently returned from a groundbreaking ceremony that was 10 years in the making. Like many of Florida’s rural cities and towns, the City of Marianna has faced years of reduced revenues and a shrinking business district. Looking...